Henrik Moltkes Blog

2010-04-07T11:16:00.006+02:00

O HAIs & kthxbais: thoughts on my new job with Mozilla.

I'm extremely happy to announce I have accepted a new position with Mozilla as the European Drumbeat project producer. Unfortunately, I will be leaving both Socialsquare and Creative Commons. My new job will be leading projects that make the web better. Or, in the words of Mozilla: "lead projects that help people around the world to understand, participate and take control of their online lives". This is what I love doing, and i am both humbled, proud and eager to get started.

"Ok, so, I know Mozilla, but what is this Drumbeat thing?"
Friends and family were initially as confused as I was, when I first heard about Drumbeat. "Does it have something to do with Firefox?" most of them asked. Well: Drumbeat is related to Firefox, but it is not the same thing. Drumbeat is about taking the story and mission of Mozilla beyond code (the stuff that browsers and the web is made of) and reaching into the broader internet culture. It's about engaging new people in new ways.

So what is this really about?

For the critical reader - one of my first questions when I was interviewing in Paris was: "What's the real agenda here?" (meaning: this is too good to be true!). I'm trained as a journalist; and supposedly always looking for hidden agendas. So far there seems to be none. This is NOT about Mozilla or anyone else harvesting ideas from many to the benefit of a few. It's about keeping the web free and open, working together, and defining what the future of the web should be like. Mozilla has proven that large-scale collaboration can result in great, perhaps the greatest, results. The success of Firefox is both reassuring and an extremely tough act to follow. I don't know how to code. I donated a few bucks to help Firefox at the outset, and got my name in the Firefox 1.0 NYT ad in return. I've had a Spread Firefox banner on this blog; stickers on my laptop, submitted bugs when my browser crashed. But, with Firefox, even if I could not contribute directly writing brilliant lines of code, I always felt part of a mission, something bigger. My ownership was proportionate to my contributions. This is how Drumbeat projects will be. And, importantly, Mozilla will provide seed funding (grants) to projects which are well-defined and ready for support. This is an ideal way to spend some of the money Mozilla has made from search royalties.

"What kind of projects will you be looking for? Could it be anything?"
So, while projects will be varied, all of them will include a strong element of people participating and lending their skills to activities that directly improve and protect the open nature of the internet. Some of the existing projects are related to the free culture advocacy and activism which has been a big part of my life for the past few years, others will be new and exciting territory. This could be arts, education, journalism, governance or, hopefully, something completely unexpected - if it helps the overarching goal of making the web better, stronger and more open, it's relevant.

Where, what, how?
I will be based in Paris, France, at Mozilla's European headquarters. About 25% of my time will be devoted to Web Made Movies, one of the first Drumbeat projects, headed by web documentary pioneer Brett Gaylor. Web Made Movies will, if successful, spread a deeper understanding of how openness makes the internet the wonderful thing it is, develop new practices and tools based on HTML5 technologies. And it will create a networks of web-native filmmakers who want to push the envelope. But mainly over the next months, I'll be identifying and supporting projects with a clear idea and strong potential for user participation, and working to push them forward. Since it's still early days, we will be focussing on bringing new people into the circle. So, if you're reading this and you have an idea, submit it here. At the end of the year at least one will be moving forward, will be funded, and will be getting a lot of attention and support from the Drumbeat team, from a great community of talented people, and from me in particular. I will be blogging (less words, maybe some audio, lots of video) along the way; more details about that later.

So, I'm sad to be leaving my colleagues at Socialsquare and friends in Copenhagen behind, but confident that everyone who knows me understands why I have to do this. Keep in touch, and please help me make Drumbeat successful!

2010-03-31T13:30:00.001+02:00

2009-10-29T00:04:00.001+01:00

Min blog holder ferie. Er snart tilbage.

2009-05-07T12:07:00.005+02:00

Mysteriet om Comedy Centrals blokering af Danmark breder sig

2009-05-01T09:54:00.004+02:00

REMIX ude som fri download - læs den, køb den, fat det :)

(via @lessig)

The Bloomsbury Academic Press version of REMIX is now Creative Commons licensed. You can download the book on the Bloomsbury Academic page.

2009-04-29T13:27:00.003+02:00

Mike Masnick on how Reznor / NIN found the "secret" of music business in the future

2009-04-21T00:28:00.006+02:00

Spredt fægtning om Pirate Bay dommen

(UPDATE: Det kommer ikke som nogen overraskelse at dommer Tomas Norström sidder i diverse interessegrupper med anklagerne. Man kan ikke have en dommer i denne slags sag der grundlæggende tror på "copyright maximalism" - og sagen bør gå om. Se denne kommentar, igen af Martin Von Haller Grønbæk. Jeg håber at få tid til at skrive et indlæg om hvorfor den danske sag også har haft alt for mange for tætte bånd - nu hvor kommer for højesteret.

Det her startede egentlig som en kommentar til Martin Von Haller Grønbæks seneste blogpost, en analyse af Pirate Bay Dommen. Da jeg de sidste par dage har savnet informeret analyse og kommentar - og ikke kunne medvirke i DR2 udland i fredags - har jeg valgt at gen-poste min kommentar her. Den bærer præg af at jeg ikke har haft tid til at læse dommens ordlyd, og ikke er inde i detaljerne. Men here goes:

Jeg skimter en politisk slagside i dommen, fordi det i sidste ende er et spørgsmål om holdning - fremfor facts - der afgør den skade, Pirate Bay har påført industrien. Man kunne argumentere for at den rent faktisk har hjulpet dem - gratis reklame osv; alle ved jo at fildeling er vigtigt for kunstnere, der vil slå igennem idag - og ingen har påvist at fildeling entydigt skader selv has-beens der lever af rettigheder. Man kunne også mene at Pirate Bay har tvunget industrien til at nytænke - ellers sad vi med en Ghostbusters XXII på VHS til samlet leje på 98 kroner når man kom en halv time for sent til Blockbuster den dag idag.. Pirate Bay har aldrig diskrimineret eller forsøgt at pådutte brugeren en bestemt type af indhold, eller indirekte gjort det gennem begrænset udbud. De har blot indekseret det, brugerne ønskede at dele.
Så, for mig er det en dom FOR establishment og IMOD “det nye” - og det er et eller andet sted en politisk gestus som kan få konsekvenser ifht vækstlaget. Jeg havde ikke ventet en så hård strafudmåling, og det bekymrer mig at en flok nørder som har drevet gæk med Hollywood og iøvrigt udviklet et usædvanligt effektivt distributionsnetværk med himmelskrigende kommercielt og public service-mæssigt potentiale (jvf. NRKs brug af samme platform) ifælge dommeren bør stoppes et år i fængsel. Hvem hjælper det?
Som en af de medvirkende i Good Copy Bad Copy (goodcopybadcopy.net) - MAYO AYILARAN fra Copyright Society of Nigeria - udtrykker det:
“If I convict a pirate, the pirate will not put money in my pocket. He will still continue to spend my mone that I pay the government as tax. The government will have to feed hi, the government will have to clothe him, and take care of him while in prison. (…) Copyright is not about stopping people from using your work, but getting them to use your work legally and giving you money for what they’ve done with your work”.
Og så vil jeg lige kommentere på Piratpartiet. Hvis du læser deres politiske program vil du opdage at se ikke vil afskaffe ophavsretten, men blot vil begrænse omfanget: http://www.piratpartiet.se/politik/upphovsratt
“Stora delar av underhållningsbranschen som den ser ut idag bygger på upphovsrättens bestämmelser om ensamrätt att utnyttja verket kommersiellt. Vi vill bevara den ensamrätten när det gäller kommersiell användning.
Men dagens skyddstid - livstid plus 70 år - är absurd. Ingen investerare gör någonsin kalkyler med så lång återbetalningstid. Ingen kan påstå att den i praktiken nästan oändliga skyddstiden är nödvändig för att locka kapital till underhållningsbranschen. Däremot leder den till många negativa konsekvenser för dem som vill bevara eller bygga vidare på klassiska verk. Därför vill vi korta skyddstiden till en nivå som är rimlig ur både samhällets och investerarens synvinkel.”
Så kan man diskutere hvor længe et værk bør være beskyttet for at balancere mellem incitament og almenvellet, eller hvordan man definerer "kommerciel". Men Piratpartiet lyder her næsten mere Lessig-agtige end du gør

Jeg kender efterhånden parterne i denne debat godt, og selvom jeg godt ved at denne forestilling endnu ikke er slut, må det siges at industrien tog dette stik med de beskidte kneb, der skulle til. Nu må vi så se om Pirate Bay kan returnere. Og hvor det efterlader "os". Min norske Creative Commons kollega Gisle vurderer at dommen rent faktisk kan sætte en stopper for mere dystopiske tiltag, fordi den viser at man ad rettens vej "kan" gøre noget ved tjenester som Pirate Bay. Lad os nu se.

2009-03-25T14:16:00.004+01:00

RIP: A Remix Manifesto screening, Free Beer og Girl Talk på Vega

(klip-klip)

Den Anden Natur, Creative Commons DK og FilmStationen inviterer til remixdokumentar og Girl Talk Live på Vega. Sted: Slagtehusgade 5E, Kødbyen (kort). Tid: Fredag d. 27/3 2009. Dørene åbnes kl. 20 - RIP starter kl. 21. Filmen varer 1t 30m. Adgang er gratis. Der er kolde og aldeles ugratis FREE BEER i baren.

Efter filmen fortsætter vi til Store Vega hvor Girl Talk spiller live, med support af Lucy Love, Fagget Fairys, Copyfokking og DJ Schack. Der er 500 billetter til salg i døren (170kr), og Girl Talk spiller så vidt vides godt efter midnat. Vi har ingen formel forbindelse til arrangementet på Vega.

Om RIP: A Remix Manifesto

"The film’s central protagonist is Girl Talk, a mash-up musician topping the charts with his sample-based songs. But is Girl Talk a paragon of people power or the Pied Piper of piracy? A participatory media experiment, from day one, director Brett Gaylor shares his raw footage at opensourcecinema.org, for anyone to remix. This movie-as-mash-up method allows these remixes to become an integral part of the film. With RiP: A remix manifesto, Gaylor and Girl Talk sound an urgent alarm and draw the lines of battle". Trailer: http://blip.tv/file/1329162

Hvis du ikke allerede har set Andreas, Ralf og min dokumentar Good Copy Bad Copy kan det stærkt anbefales. Klik he, tryk på fuld skærm, og læn dig tilbage i stolen.

2009-03-20T10:51:00.012+01:00

New job at Socialsquare, swedish / norwegian news and bloprupcy update.

Sorry for not updating my blog lately - I have been bitten by the the microblogging bug, and slowly let my old blog go blogrupt. If you have no idea what I am talking about, don't worry. If you do, here´s my twitter feed. Chances are I will find more time and motivation to maintain both this blog and creativecommons.dk in the near future.

So, I got a new job with Socialsquare. Socialsquare helps companies and organizations understand social media - ie. wikis, blogs and other collaborative / particatory tools and processes. I will continue to volunteer as public project lead for Creative Commons Denmark. At Socialsquare, part of my job will be to offer advice on how to use Creative Commons and other forms of open licensing: business models, strategy, general consultancy. I will also probably take more speaking jobs and organize mini-workshops, public meetings etc. on top of Socialsquare's "normal" products aimed at creating participation.
Obviously, I am happy that Socialsquare allows me to continue my work in this direction. There aren't many companies in Denmark that "get" the NEW in new media better (and see the business potential in openness), and I am proud to join their team. This also means I stop working as a freelance journalist at DR (Danish Broadcasting), at least for now. I will, however, still be playing around with cameras and microphones at 23 Video, a new video platform for companies and organisations.

Why the Stockholm image? I have been following the Pirate Bay Case ("spectrial") closely and found the whole thing amusing, not least the whole mud slinging part that played out in swedish media and on various social networks. Even though painful at times, I miss a similar focus and discussion on the role of copyright law in Denmark. I was offered to comment on the case live on danish TV news and my main message was: whether or not the founders of Pirate Bay are convicted, their platform and view on technology are winning in the long run.

Few days later NRK launched their bittorrent tracker which is basically a clone of The Pirate Bay, aimed at spreading NRK content efficiently. The technology is *very* similar. I am sure DR will do the same 5-10 years from now, when they have stopped focusing on "pirates" and understand the necessary transition from broadcast to participation.

Danish institutions are very conservative in this respect. Of course, the main author of danish copyright law for the last 5 year, Peter Schønning, recently left his job at the Ministry of Culture to join the anti-piracy thugs at Johan Schlüter law firm ("Antipiratgruppen"). Just in time to lead the precedence-setting case that resulted in danish ISPs to block the Pirate Bay. Cosy.

In general, the recent push towards digitizing the danish cultural heritage has not, to my knowledge, been very conducive of a more relaxed copyright regime in Denmark, but rather to retrofit the cultural heritage to "web 1.0". This means that hundreds of millions of kroner will be spent on digitizing and making available danish culture in a "read-only" manner. On could fear this would lead to our cultural heritage becoming irrelevant to danes (and the rest of the world) for a number of years, while others countries make theirs available in more open ways that allow users more liberties. The image at the beginning of this blogpost is an example of this. It's from Swedish National Heritage Board, the part of the swedish government responsible for cultural heritage and historic environment issues. This week the board joined the Flickr Commons, adding 121 photos from the Carl Curman collection as a first wave of "liberated" images.

"The Swedish National Heritage Board has become a member of The Commons on Flickr in order to increase public access to our photos and provide a way for the general public to contribute with information and knowledge. New photos will be added regularly. You are welcome to share, to comment, tag or just enjoy!"

As one on my first projetcs, I will look at how danish institutions can participate in the conversation that is culture today. While we wait for them, you can browse Curmans photos tagged with "Denmark" here and find this great example of old and new meeting, thanks to the power of social media: flickr user dreadyboy has shot the same image as
Curman, and added in the comments:

2009-01-14T00:45:00.004+01:00

Al Jazeera frigiver Gaza-stof under CC licens.

I går skrev jeg på Facebook at jeg var imponeret over Al Jazeeras dækning af Gaza. Et par minutter senere modtog jeg link til to artikler i hhv. Herald Tribune og New York Times der kom til samme slutning dagen før:

In a conflict where the Western news media have been largely prevented from reporting from Gaza because of restrictions imposed by the Israeli military, Al Jazeera has had a distinct advantage. It was already there.

Samtidig kunne jeg læse at

Al Jazeera planned to announce this week that all its video material of the war in Gaza would become available under a lenient Creative Commons license, which effectively means it can be used by anyone - rival broadcaster, documentary maker, individual blogger - as long as Al Jazeera is credited.

Pressemeddelsen fra Creative Commons kom så ud nu, for et par minutter siden og kan læses her i fuld længde

Al Jazeera will release its exclusive Arabic and English coverage produced by the Network’s correspondents and crews in the Gaza Strip online at http://cc.aljazeera.net. The ongoing war and crisis in Gaza, together with the scarcity of news footage available, make the repository a key resource for anyone producing content about the current situation. This is the first time that video footage produced by a news broadcaster is released under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license, which allows for both commercial and non-commercial use.

På godt dansk betyder det at alle må bruge Al Jazeeras klip fra Gaza. Så længere de husker at kreditere klippene (altså nævne at klippene stammer herfra) kan de gøre med dem hvad de vil.

De sidste to-tre år har jeg arbejdet med levende billeder i og udenfor broadcastbranchen (læs: DR), og har ikke uden frustration måtte acceptere en del meningsløse begrænsninger som ophavsretten lægger på både skaber (journalisten) og bruger (dig på din computer). Situationen kan beskrives ved at vende denne nyhed om: Forestil dig at Al Jazeeras i stedet sagde: der er mangel på billeder fra Gaza lige nu. Dem har vi og derfor kan vi tjene penge. Ergo skal alle der bruger så meget som et sekund af vores billeder have en aftale med vores jurister og betale enorme summer, ellers sagsøger vi. Det ville både betyde at verden ikke hørte hvad der egentlig foregår. Det ville også betyde at en masse journalister og redaktører frustreret måtte lave dårligere journalistik fordi råstoffet ikke var tilgængeligt. Selvom det var lige der, foran dem. Ikke så fedt, vel?

Derfor er jeg også særligt glad for den her nyhed, for, som Joi Ito udtrykker det:

Video news footage is an essential part of modern journalism (...)[and] to allow commercial and amateur use is an enormous contribution to the global dialogue around important events. Al Jazeera has set the example and the standard that we hope others will follow.

Jeg mødte Mohamed Nanabhay og en del af Al Jazeeras new media hold i Japan denne sommer og var imponeret over deres friske approach og uspolerethed af "old media" dogmer som "ophavsret er godt. Mere ophavsret er bedre". En anden Al Jazeera medarbejder beskrev holdningen som "det skal ud, så bredt som muligt" - og siden deres brugere ikke bekymrer sig om ophavsret, kunne de ligesågodt give dem stoffet så frit som muligt. Sidst jeg checkede handlede broadcast om at få tingene ud, så hurtigt, så bredt, så godt som muligt. Hvorfor gælder det ikke nettet?

Med dette træk har Al Jazeera endnu engang cementeret sin position som fornyer, provokatør og moderne broadcaster der fortjener respekt og opmærksomhed.

2008-12-13T09:03:00.005+01:00

Clicktraps, Boyle on new book and Masnick on why a music "tax" won't work

One of my all-time favorite podcasts is WNYC's On The Media, and this week the show had three interviews in a row that I recommend. Also, worth noticing, is their website which offers embeddable players, downloads, free transcripts, comments and debate - interesting how the concept of public service is being renewed by american (-foundation and grants based NPR broadcasters) and not by our state-secured monoliths.

The New Hacker

Last week, a jury in the MySpace suicide case
found Lori Drew guilty of violating the site's "terms of service agreement" and that, they said, made her a hacker. The Berkman Center's Christopher Soghoian says according to the agreements on many popular sites (you're supposed to be 18 to use Google!) many of us are hackers.

Click to Agree

So one of the jurors in the MySpace trial reads every terms of service agreement she encounters, but does anyone else? And if not, why not? New York Law School professor James Grimmelmann explains why companies have them and why we think we can ignore them.

Patently Wrong

In James Boyle's new book, The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of Mind, the "sealed crustless sandwich" is just one example of patent law gone awry. Boyle argues that current law is making it harder and harder to share information and ideas to the detriment of the culture at large. His book is available for free online here.

Also worth mentioning is this article by Mike Masnick - again, another very precise analysis, this time why a "music tax" is not such a good idea after all.

2008-11-25T12:02:00.009+01:00

Soulja Boy fjerner fanvideoer

Se først den “Originale” Soulja Boy Video (der iøvrigt ikke kan embeddes som andre YouTube videoer).

Se så Kevin Driscoll der lærer nørder på ROLFcon at cranke som SouljaBoy:

Det er dette klip, Youtube - sammen med en række andre, der bruger SouljaBoys musik - nu fjerner. Heldigvis ligger klippet også på blip.tv der har en lidt mindre lægge-sig-på-ryggen-agtig position ifht. DMCA.

Se så Kevins svar til Soulja Boy, efter at YouTube med kryptiske argumenter fjernede klippet.

Det kunne tyde på at Kevin er blevet offer for Youtubes automatiserede takedown-procedure - eller også har advokater i Soulja Boys entourage ikke forstået hvor Soulja Boys berømmelse stammer fra:

"DeAndre Ramone Way (born July 28, 1990), better known by his stage name Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, or simply Soulja Boy, is an American rapper, dancer, and record producer. In September 2007, his single "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was initially self-published on the Internet, and it became a number-one hit in the United States for seven non-consecutive weeks starting in September 2007"

siger Wikipedia

Mere her

Forresten gælder mindst ligeså skizofrene forhold DRs indhold på YouTube - men det er er en helt anden historie, som fortjener mindst en selvstændig blogpost.

Thanks, Fred

2008-11-18T12:21:00.008+01:00

Another case of insanely stupid Apple DRM

A couple of weeks ago I started having problems with my Macbook Pro. For a few days, I seriously thought about getting the new model. Now I am happy I didn't. It appear the new MBP has hard-coded DRM that prevents playback of iTunes content on "non-verified" units, such as projectors. This probably applies to other fields too.

So, if you are a good boy and buy an episode, say, of The Wire - and try to play it in your home cinema - chances are you get this error message;
This is just absurd. Only consumers can make Apple understand that unless you put real alternatives to "piracy" out there, you are paying lip service to the principles of "creativity" and "genius" you used to tout. Even if this is another stupid idea imposed by the studios, Apple should leverage their power to oppose it.

Read the story at Ars Technica

UPDATE: see 35 Days Against DRM — Economic Boycott of DRM This Gift Giving Season and 35 Days Against DRM — Day One: MacBook

2008-10-28T20:33:00.006+01:00

US iTunes konto i Danmark

HVIS man skulle være tilbøjelig til at kaste sig ud i den slags kunne man via to forholdsvis nemme manøvrer få adgang til at købe, leje og se film osv via iTunes US (mens man venter på at Apple tager små lande som Danmark seriøst nok til at løse de juridiske problemer ved at handle over grænser). Det kunne, hypotetisk set, gøres ved

1: Brug denne guide som har den enorme fordel at man ikke vil skulle kravle rundt efter en kode på nettet.

2: Finde en "co"-adresse i USA - det kunne f.eks. være Montgomery Burns'

3: Købe et "iTunes gift certificate" på eBay. Man kan sandsynligvis finde et på 200 USD for mellem 100 og 150 USD. Indtast koden, og du skulle have adgang til ALT indtil dine - billige 200 usd - udløber. Som altid på eBay er det vigtigt at tjekke sælgers feedback og antal gennemførte handler. Jeg har hørt der kan gå alt mellem 10 min og 24 timer fra man køber, til koden ankommer.

Jeg har selvfølgelig ikke afprøvet dette, men det forlyder at det virker 100%

2008-10-15T10:13:00.005+02:00

CC video, FS Cons og NCC

(klip klip fra Creative Commons Danmark)

Jesse Dylan (kendt for blandt andet står bag den Emmy-vindende “Yes We Can” kampagnevideo) har skabt denne kortfilm der forklarer idéerne bag Creative Commons. Dylan interviewede bestyrelsesmedlemmerne Hal Abelson, James Boyle, Joi Ito, Michael Carroll, Lawrence Lessig, Molly Shaffer Van Houweling, Eric Saltzman, Jimmy Wales, og Laurie Racine og resultatet blev denne video, A Shared Culture.

To yderst interessante konference løber af stabelen i Sverige næste uge. Nordic Commons Conference tager begreber som open business, public service og pirateri til behandling d. 21-23 oktober, i Stockholm. Umiddelbart efter bygger FS Cons den 22-24 Oktober "bro mellem fri software of fri kultur" i Göteborg. Kom hvis du kan!

2008-10-09T11:43:00.005+02:00

USPS abroad - forget it!

(if you're not interested in a long rant about USPS international parcel delivery, skip this post)
On October 23rd I bought a used Herman Miller Aeron chair on eBay, and ordered international shipping with USPS (USD 250). USPS offers a tracking service, but this is misleading, really, as the only information relayed is a: when sender registers a shipment ("click & ship") and b: a notice when it has been delivered. The USPS "tracking" system has one giant flaw: it does not tell you when your item is en route to destination, and thus gives you no chance to make sure you're there.
Tuesday morning 6 o'clock I received an update that stated:
"Attempted Delivery Abroad, October 06, 2008, 11:50 pm, FRANCE".
Not where in France, by whom, or anything else. 11.50 pm? WTF? Everyone here - mailman as well as me - were sleeping by 11.50pm. No sign of delivery attempts. When I called, a very rude lady told me I should contact Chronopost in France; the delivery was no longer their responsibility. Aha. Chronopost knew nothing of either tracking number, and had no clue why USPS would point me their way. So, I line up at the local post office and later at the main post office. Nothing there.

I called USPS and issisted: WHO is delivering in France, HOW do I find it? This time, the lady said she did not know why I would call Chronopost because most of their deliveries are made by Coliposte - but in fact, foreign deliveries were not their problem - I basically had to figure it out myself. When I asked for her superior or someone who knew ANYTHING, she hung up.

Then, I received a second email notice - again, delivery attempt, 11:50 PM. And again, no sign of delivery attempts. So, I head to the main post office in Marseille to ask about Coliposte. They have nothing in the entire La Poste system. So I go thru DHL, FedEx, UPS and TNT with no luck. My tracking number - all I have - yeilds no information, and I start fearing the chair will be sent back after third delivery attempt. I find this completely unacceptable.

UPDATE: I have been in touch with several rude and -semi-automatic USPS employees, and a couple of friendly ones. The superviser at the local post office in Le Panier, a very helpful and thorough man - went through the whole thing with me, and found the tracking information "trés étrange". After 5 calls (!) to USPS - several being very short and extremely rude on the other side (Listen to this!) I was told my package was at "Roissy Courrier International" (the international hub, in Paris). This was completely new and in contrast to the information given to me via USPS tracking - the package has probably not yet left french customs (after a week). Once it left, they explained, it will have a new tracking number which then works only in France. This will NOT be available via USPS tracking, so the whole idea of "tracking" is lost - you basically have to just sit it out.

UPDATE II: There was a slip in my mailbox saturday oct 10th, and today I picked up the chair from the local post office. The director singled me out in the +30min queue and found the huge box for me. There is still no update in the tracking info, and I hereby swear to never use USPS services again, or at least before they enter the 21st century.

2008-10-06T14:57:00.004+02:00

Obama om det digitale område

- netneutralitet, fordele ved åbne fremfor lukkede systemer, egovernment, access to knowledge, digital divide. Det er sgu opkvikkende med en præsidenkandidat der taler om de her emner og tilsyneladende ved hvad han taler om

Mere på http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/

(og lad os lige få en af Obama-kampagnens mindre noble reklamer med:)

Og til sidst en gang skulderklap fra Lessig

2008-09-30T09:48:00.006+02:00

Så nemt og krydsplatform kunne DR on demand være..

Jeg sidder i Frankrig. Andreas, som jeg sammen med Ralf lavede Good Copy Bad Copy med - skriver: "HAR VI GCBC M danske subs? jeg skal vise den iaften i en film klub"..

Jeg har den ikke. Det har de heller ikke. Jeg ringer til arkivet, men de har travlt og skal have penge for det. Mange penge. Men så går det op for mig at vi lod DR lege med den i forbindelse med deres h264 forsøg.

Og efter 2 minutters legen rundt med VLC og Quicktime - er filen fundet og afspiller i skarp h264. Prøv selv:

download VLC - www.videolan.org og installer

tryk "file" --> open network --> klik "http/ftp ..." osv (se billede)

og indsæt:

rtsp://"http://streamer-01.dr.nordija.dk:554/DR2Tema1700.mp4

OG (det er vigtigt) klik "streaming/Saving"

Du kan også bare åbne med Quicktime (pro?), "open URL" -
rtsp://"http://streamer-01.dr.nordija.dk:554/DR2Tema1700.mp4

Derefter kan filen gemmes, og bruges på alskens dimser, klippes os, spilles baglæns - hvad ved jeg. Det mangler selvfølgelig en brugerflade, og det er nok de færreste der er interesseret i at gemme de store filer til senere brug. Men det er nøjagtig ligesom VHS´en i sin tid, bare meget nemmere. Tænk hvis du bare kunne få adgang til filerne uden alt bøvlet med streaming - det er jo bare naiv jura (dvs. at det juridisk set ikke er en kopi hvis filen streames - det er det jo, det er bare en anden måde at tilgå den på - streamede filer er jo alligevel hamrende nemme at gemme, så hvorfor ikke prøve at gøre det rigtig nemt?? - en peer to peer tilgang ville også effektiv sætte en stopper for DRs båndbreddeproblemer). Met et ord: ophavsret. Den bør opdateres. Og kom så ikke og sig at den altid hjælper ophavsmanden.

OPDATERET: så er det heller ikke nemmere.. Vi endte med at finde en DVD et sted.. Men FORESTIL dig en "download" knap udfor de enkelte programmer. Måske endda "høj" / "lav" og "HD". Bare tænk tanken. Så tager vi det praktiske senere :)

2008-09-25T15:37:00.004+02:00

Remix-friendly formats - and Big Buck Bunny

I am currently wrapping up my latest documentary production, Dataspor - a 3-part documentary for danish schools, on the topic of surveillance, web 2.0 etc. Part of the idea was for the film to be integrated in a larger learning framework, and so the video should be freely available for kids to re-use and remix. I asked some friends which formats would work best (and I still haven't come to any conclusion) to include for most efficiently hitting most platforms and digital literacy degrees. Kids in Denmark have very heterogenous entrypoints - some are amazingly savvy and geared up, others are left with archaic school equipment.
Anyway, Jon Philips pointed me to a project I know but never actually got around to watch - the full-blown animation Big Buck Bunny, produced only using Blender, a free open source 3D content creation suite. I was quite amazed at the quality, which looks close to what major commercial players were doing just a few years ago - but produced at a fraction of the cost.
Judge for yourself:
Big Buck Bunny from Blender Foundation on Vimeo.

The Blender people have made available the entire production for others to reuse here the formats are many, but is this too "elitist" for ordinary school children? Which tools do they use, and what do they want in terms of formats / resolution etc? I have made full-quality h264 Mp4s, avi's, wmv (though I hate that codec) and iphone / iPod hi/low's. Any input would be highly appreciated - especially from those with school-age kids who like to play around with video.

2008-09-21T23:38:00.004+02:00

Here is a "collaborative Fotonauts album" that Joi Ito posted to his blog. A few of my free beer shots seem to have become emblematic of this event (but where is the absolutely amazing ski jumper having a cold, free beer??). I will post about my impressions and talks at iSummit 08 soon.

I met Jean-Marie Hullot, the driving force behind Photonauts, and had a demo with Fred and it seemed very interesting indeed, like a crossover between a good "ordinary" desktop photo browser, wikipedia and flickr. Also interesting to see a former Apple CTO go "colleborative".

2008-09-14T00:08:00.006+02:00

DR h264 livestream i udlandet - bedre kvalitet, ingen IP-lås.

Det er irriterende at sidde i udlandet, starte Windows (og for mig sker det stort set kun når jeg skal se/høre DR) før TV-avisen, og når alt så endelig er klar - få flg. fejlmeddelse:

Kort forklaret tjekker DR om dit IP-nummer (der typisk beskriver din - oftest udbyders - geografiske placering) er fra Danmark og hvis, ikke, så er der lukket for det varme vand. Andre broadcastere har lignende låse.

Det giver måske mening at ABCs servere ikke har kapacitet til at hele verden vil streame Lost i HD gratis. Men DR burde kunne håndtere den begrænsede mængde mennesker der har en interesse i det danske sprogområde. Man kunne evt "slukke" signalet under spillefilm med hidsige rettighedshavere, men hvorfor gøre det når folk alligevel har investeret i harddiskoptagere. Der findes måder at omgå IP-låsene, men fælles for dem er at det er lidt besværligt og sjældent fungerer godt nok til at få en tilfredtillende oplevelse med mindre man har adgang til særligt gode proxyservere.

Men der findes en simpel og lovlig løsning på problemet ifht. DR TV live - og den fortjener al mulig ros og støtte. Både fordi den bygger på en overlegen teknologi i forhold til Windows Media Player, fordi den fungerer lige godt på Mac, PC og Linux boxe (og vil kunne fungere på alle tænkelige platforme) men især fordi den er tænkt fri og åben, i modsætning til meget af DRs øvrige medieudbud online. Desuden er kvaliteten langt bedre ved samme båndbredde end via den vanlige Windows Media Player løsning.

For at bruge DRs nye h264 stream skal du installere VLC og derefter følge anvisningerne på denne side. Hvis du har læst helt indtil nu har du sandsynligvis allerede verdens bedste medieafspiller installeret og kan derfor bruge dette direkte link som også betyder du ikke skal til at copy-paste stier til streamet osv. Du kan gå på fuld skærm ved at dobbeltklikke. Jeg kan dog bedst lide at afspille direkte fra VLC af en række forskellige grunde.

Kudos til de få men ihærdige medarbejdere på DR som har fået det her op at køre (og jo, det er måske sket sent, men det er sket, og det er altså ret fantastisk!)

PS: Folk der kender mig vil vide hvor frustreret og energisk brokkende jeg har været omkring DRs valg på området gennem årene så det er på høje tide jeg udtrykker min store glæde over at sidde her - i udlandet - og kunne se DR i dejlig h264. Når jeg en dag både kan streame øjeblikkeligt eller gemme tidligere indslag/programmer uden fjollede låse og besværlige Windows-only løsninger - ja så er vi nået langt, både hvad angår teknik og måske især jura.

2008-07-14T22:15:00.003+02:00

Radiohead one step closer to CC

(via Joi Ito - thanks, Fred, for the tip)

Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis will know how much I have been repeating myself about Radiohead and Creative Commons being the next big thing to happen. We're not quite there yet, but I am still very happy to see RH one step closer with this news. I must admit that I have written a few letters to their press person (who never bothers to reply) and management, but RH is a big train to derail and one that many want to steer in their direction.. Anyway, I am just happy to see two of my big passions moving one step closer..

Radiohead just released a new video for its song "House of Cards" from the album "In Rainbows".

No cameras or lights were used. Instead two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.

There are more videos and information on the page for this.

Exciting for Creative Commons is that the data (although not the music) used to produce this music video are being made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License on the Google Code site.

The Source code to the software used is being made available under a Apache License 2.0.

This combination of Open Source licenses for code and Creative Commons licenses for data/content is very "good idea".

The code and the data not the music are available on the radiohead Google Project Page.

Thanks to Aaron Koblin (the guy who wrote the code), Radiohead, Warner-Chappell and DeWitt Clinton and his team at Google for taking the lead on this. Awesome video and looking forward to seeing what other people do with the software and data.

2008-07-11T17:46:00.004+02:00

iPhone GPS + 3g first impressions

As part of my new documentary I tested the new iPhone's GPS and 3g functions today and was pretty impressed. I have a Garmin 705 GPS for my bike which seems to have slightly better coverage (probably due to more simultaneous satellite connections) but for a mobile phone .. sweet. Unlike the Garmin, the iPhone has no base map (which would have been practical - maybe a third party app for that later? Hint, Garmin?) but loads the maps via 3g - which, again, went much faster than the GSM / Edge connections I am used to.

Here is a video of me riding down nørrebrogade with GPS on, inside a car.
(h264 .mov here)

And this one shows the iPhone pinpointing me in NYC (!) when half-way inside a tunnel on Nørrebro Copenhagen (where there Garmin pegged me instantly).
(h264 .mov here)

But since 3g coverage is sparse on Telias network and there is a 300mb limit I will wait and jailbreak one later - and stick to my 1. gen iPhone for now. The overall "feel" is very nice though.

2008-07-11T03:56:00.002+02:00

Kasper fik den første iPhone

Min ven Kasper - som jeg lærte at kende da Henrik Føhns og jeg tog de første iPhones i DK under kærlig behandling i Harddisken i sin tid (jeg med min hackede af slagsen i lommen) - har sendt mig små beskeder de sidste par døgn fra sin plads i køen foran Telias butik på strøget. Det interessante ved historien er at Kasper samtidig med at konkurrere om pladsen som Apples største fanboy i Danmark - også er den dygtigste iPhone hacker jeg kender. Og en utrolig hjælpsom og tålmodig én af slagsen - både gennem den store iphone blog og privat. Det er på tide at Apple - og andre firmaer af Apples størrelse og position - lærer at fans gerne vil ind bag interfacet for at lære produkterne at kende, gerne helt ned til koden. Det er de principper som Open Source og Fri Software repræsenterer - og som Apple i forbindelse med mange populære produkter såsom iPhone og iTunes - lader hånt om.

Lur mig om Kasper ved først givne lejlighed lukker iPhone 2.0 op, om ikke andet bare for sporten.

link (BT) og Harddisken indslag

2008-06-21T01:29:00.003+02:00

Girl Talk's new remix opus: Feed The Animals

Girl Talk (the "star" of Good Copy Bad Copy) has released his new album. Only listened to a few bits, but sounds like a breakthrough - much in the vain of Night Ripper, but much tighter production and bold mashes. When this sinks in I' ll add more.

PS: HAPPY to hear 15 steps (Radiohead) and other RH tunes sampled - what are you going to do, Radiohead? Have Parlophone/EMI unleash their dogs ? I don't think so..

Listen to this snippet and chill!

Girl Talk is one of the acts on this year's Roskilde Festival that I look SERIOUSLY forward to.

DOWNLOAD

Tracklist:
1. Play Your Part (Pt. 1)
2. Shut The Club Down
3. Still Here
4. What It's All About
5. Set It Off
6. No Pause
7. Like This
8. Give Me A Beat
9. Hands In The Air
10. In Step
11. Let Me See You
12. Here's The Thing
13. Don't Stop
14. Play Your Part (Pt. 2)

Release Date: 06/19/2008

Thanks, Ralf / luftskibet